PETALING JAYA: Nik Nazmi Nik Ahmad has threatened to take legal action against Bersatu information committee member Badrul Hisham Shaharin following claims that there were elements of corruption involving the government’s flood mitigation projects (RTB).
The Natural Resources and Environmental Sustainability Minister said the allegation that the projects had ballooned to RM16.6bil, involving companies and unknown individuals that received commissions as proxies for the minister, was baseless and malicious.
Nik Nazmi added that the Finance Ministry had allocated RM11.8bil to be spent on 33 flood mitigation projects and had not crossed RM16.6bil as alleged by Badrul Hisham, better known as Chegubard.
“It is not the first time that Chegubard has come up with wild, baseless accusations.
“He has also lost several lawsuits because what he said was proven as slander.“Similarly, Chegubard’s accusations are baseless and show his lack of understanding of the procurement process and government budget allocation procedures,” he said in a statement yesterday.
Nik Nazmi was responding to the remarks made by Chegubard, who claimed there were serious corruption practices involving the flood mitigation plan worth more than RM16bil and wanted the police to investigate the matter.Chegubard made the claims after lodging a police report on Wednesday.
He also claimed that a company registered as a cosmetic business had allegedly doubled up as a flood mitigation consultant, siphoning millions of ringgit from the RM16bil government flood mitigation projects meant to address flood issues nationwide.
He further claimed that several law firms in Klang and Batang Kali had allegedly facilitated the transaction by legalising the payouts through the firms via an agreement with the companies awarded the flood mitigation projects.
Nik Nazmi said the allegations were defamatory and he would take civil legal action against the Opposition politician soon.
“Almost all of the RTB projects this year are still undergoing the tender process.
“And for this year, 19 projects have been issued with Letters of Acceptance.
“There has been no allocation for development expenditure.
“Additionally, government RTB projects undergo a transparent procurement process involving the Finance Ministry as well as procurement board meetings, which I am not personally involved,” said the minister.
In a separate statement, Chegubard said Nik Nazmi should have ordered a thorough investigation into the matter as stated in the police report he lodged on Wednesday.
He also urged the government to show serious commitment in combating corruption by probing the case.
